Hello Everyone
Today I would like to talk about how do brands build trust and engage with customers, how trust is so important and the act of building trust. I think this is more important than every in this ever growing digital form of communication that we live in.
How do brands build trust and engage with customers? this question is at the Forefront of every company’s thinking, no matter if they are a Long established Brand or a new start up. Digital technologies have not only created new social networks but also dramatically changed how consumers trust the brands they use.
Trust is a Concept:
Trust is a concept that has been analysed for many many years, alongside other disciplines like Philosophy, economics, sociology and others. Within marketing academic research there has been numerous Studies that have investigated the act of building trust. Trust can take years to earn and only a matter of seconds to lose so its important to keep trust at the forefront of your brands strategy. No matter how well a business man uses to build trust (even at scale) one error can cause the whole relationship to fall apart.
A Whole New Set of Opportunities:
With the creation of social media platforms Like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, Snapchat and many more have given brands a whole new set of opportunities to engage with their old and new customers. While being an important Issue in e commerce with testimonials being some of the best Paid Media For the spend. Trust is arguably even more Important In online brand communities, when uncertainty can be high due to the lack of face to face contact and a higher level of user generated content. In recent times trust has been eroded by things like the Cambridge analytic a scandal in early 2018 when allegedly helped swap the outcomes of both the Us election and the UK’s Brexit referendum in 2016. These type of events hurts and erodes trust making the user feel manipulated and deceived.
That is The Job of a Marketer:
You might think that is the job of a marketer to manipulate and deceive their targets to buy more products. I would like to suggest you are wrong, this is a very short term tactic that ultimately will lose you customers and be very short term thinking. Marketing is all about the long game we don’t normally sell a lot on the first go it takes time to build trust with the buyer and get them to part with there cash.
Sales people talk about certainty when selling they need to make their prospects feel certain that one product or service is right for them, this is a form of trust building and marketing should be designed to help the sales team to build that trust. Dont let your sales team down by not giving them the right tools to move a no to a yes. Try to aim all your efforts towards building to trust for the brand and products it sells. Your customer will love your brand more and in turn buying more. your sales team will feel great because the product is easier to sell and they are making more sales.
I hope this has helped and added some clarity to your otherwise uncertain company future.
Until next time this has been Jack Thomson
